Sunday, June 24, 2012

Book Review: Between You And Me

Title: Between
You And Me

Authors: Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin

Publisher: Simor
& Schuster

Imprint: Atria
Books

Pub. Date: June
12, 2012

ISBN:
978439188187

The publisher’s summary:

In Between You
and Me, twenty-seven-year-old Logan Wade has built a life for
herself in New York City, far from her unhappy childhood in Oklahoma. But when
she gets the call that her famous cousin needs a new assistant, it’s an offer
she can’t refuse. Logan hasn’t seen Kelsey since they were separated as kids;
in the meantime, Kelsey Wade has become one of FortuneMagazine’s
most powerful celebrities and carrion for the paparazzi. But the joy at
their reunion is overshadowed by the toxic dynamic between Kelsey and her
controlling parents. As Kelsey grasps desperately at a “real” life, Logan risks
everything to try and give her cousin the one thing she has never
known—happiness. As Kelsey unravels in the most horribly public way Logan finds
that she will ultimately have to choose between saving her cousin and saving
herself.

Between You and Me has
the kind of ripped from the headlines plot you expect from an episode of Law & Order. That’s not to say that
this kind of inspiration is illegitimate; even Joyce Carol Oates took this
route with her JonBenet Ramsey inspired novel My Sister, My Love. The allure of Between You & Me lies in how closely
it shadows the story of Britney Spears’ personal struggles. People like gossip, and it’s fun to
read a story that allows you to imagine you’re discovering all the inside dirt
on a (fictional) pop star so similar to Britney Spears that their names are
almost interchangeable.

So far, so good. But the problem is that Kraus and McLaughlin
have established a pattern of novels that have happy endings. Coming to the
tragic ending of Between You & Me
feels like being mauled by a chihuahua: while not truly painful, it’s totally
unexpected. Surprising the reader is usually a good thing. But when you read a
book by Kraus and McLaughlin, you expect glossy, fast-paced fun. Between You & Me adheres so closely
to its inspiration that it forgoes the necessary happy ending of a fun read.

Kraus and McLaughlin alter the outcome of Kelsey’s tumultuous
life to make her ultimate situation even worse than that of Britney Spears.
Instead of suffering from an actual mental illness, Kelsey is the victim of a
Gothic plot cooked up by her parents to retain control over her. After she
rebels against her parents, Kelsey is placed under conservatorship despite the
fact that she’s healthy and able to run her own life. It’s hard to decide which
is more appalling: the real life example of Spears, in which a mentally ill
woman legally under the control of her parents is pimped out for millions, or the
fictional example of a healthy woman who accedes the legal control of her life
to her parents because she’s sick of fighting for freedom from their pimping.

For the most part, the novel is well written enough to make
you ignore the stock descriptions, constant label-checking and sentences so
sloppy they weigh down paragraphs like lead balloons. But you don’t read a book
like Between You & Me for its
fine prose, and the novel fulfills its promise to entertain. Fans of Kraus & McLaughlin will enjoy the book, as will
anyone who is looking for a decent beach read. The ending may even appeal to
those who haven’t gotten a dose of fictional schadenfreude lately. Being
forewarned about the ending should make the reading experience as reliable as
it typically is for this genre and these authors.